Changing Scope of Organisational Behaviour-The need for focusing on the Organisational Milieu and the Emerging Importance of Training in People Skills

Purpose - This paper explores the important challenges of the field of organisational behaviour (OB) in the current working environment to identify the areas where OB practitioners and HR professionals can contribute positively towards the organisational effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach - The paper reviews existing literature on the challenges of the present day business environment and proceeds to identify and elaborate on two major inclusions in the scope of OB for the future. The paper does this by analysing the four major challenges faced by any organisation in today's fast changing world i.e. Impact of globalisation, growing workforce diversity, managing ethical and moral issues and the use of advanced information technology to arrive at the present day organisational context, which in turn is called as the Organisational Milieu.

Findings - The authors are trying to reorient the focus of the field of organisational behaviour by explaining the need for giving priority to both micro and macro variables of OB while studying the human behaviour in organisation. This paper proposes two areas- Organisational Milieu and Training in "People Skills"- where OB professionals can contribute as part of the changing focus in the current challenging and constantly changing working environment.

Practical implications - The paper identifies two major areas of focus for modern day OB practitioners. One- Focusing on Organisational Milieu and developing suitable OD strategies based on it. Two- Identifying the Training needs of the organisation and providing "people skills" training.

Originality/value- The paper tries to present arguments to support the necessity for reorienting the focus of OB from an individual perspective to an environmental perspective as well. The paper suggests the terminology "organisational milieu" to denote the changing organisational context and also provides one of the most important practical aspects of the field of OB - Training in "People skills" , which is an important skill in today's business world.